As the title clearly states, the three volumes of the new encyclopedia are dedicated to storytelling, “one of the oldest human activities, possibly as old as language itself” (xvii). The dilemma of choosing the appropriate entries is well-known to all editors of such big publishing endeavors. The contributors to this encyclopedia faced the problem of the exclusion of entries, since “almost every subject can be used by an enterprising storyteller, and, if every potential subject was to be included, this would have turned into an endless series of volumes” (xv). Consequently, the included lemmata cover a variety of subjects: tale types, myths, folktales, mythological characters, short biographies of major figures related to storytelling such as Hans Christian Andersen, national storytelling styles, and peripheral topics such as role-playing games and superheroes.
The encyclopedia provides also a selection of retellings of some of the discussed stories. For instance epics, myths, and folktales from all over the world are reprinted for the readers. Some of those texts seem to be linguistically not particularly elaborated, which might be a disappointment for the eloquent reader or storyteller. The editor also made available a list of worldwide courses and educational programs focused on storytelling as well as a list of storytelling festivals. This might be useful for those who are interested in academic or public programs on storytelling; however, the lists seem not to be well-informed, especially for countries outside the United States. The same index is printed at the end of each volume; one could have avoided the repetition by printing it only once.
Every good encyclopedia that serves as a reliable reference tool must offer at the end an extensive and up-to-date bibliography, which unfortunately here is not the case. The bibliography given seems to be carefully organized in three parts (storytelling books, folktale books, and tale type and motif indexes). However, the decision to categorize the references into the above-mentioned sub-topics is arbitrary and perhaps incorrect. For instance, the extensive list of books edited by Johannes Wilbert and Karen Simoneau about folk literature of indigenous people of the Americas primarily offers stories and secondarily motif indexes; thus, they should have been listed under “Folktale Books” and not under “Tale Type and Motif Indexes.” Moreover, some basic up-to-date references are missing, such as Hans-Jörg Uther’s 2004 The Types of International Folktales. Additionally, a careful reader finds several inaccuracies in the titles of the references, not only in the bibliography but also in the sources after the entries. Unfortunately, inaccuracies can be found in other places too. Just to mention one small example: in the introduction it is written that “the fabulist Aesop lived in the fifth century B.C.E.” (xviii), whereas the main entry for Aesop places him chronologically correct in the sixth century B.C.E. (11). All these minor and major issues may cause one to distrust this encyclopedia as a reliable scholarly reference tool.
It is awkward when only a few entries are signed by the names of their authors. Why do the majority of the entries remain anonymous? The preface does not clearly define the audience of this encyclopedia, but in the introduction we come to understand that these three volumes are directed mostly to performers, to storytellers. Although the entries may be interesting and promising, the whole engagement looks superficial. The folklore student or scholar should not expect to find here academic stringency. Moreover, the reader, either in academia or not, should adopt a critical attitude toward the facts given in this new encyclopedia.
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[Review length: 581 words • Review posted on April 6, 2009]